Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0/Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0 (L0pht Heavy Industries, Inc.)(1997).ISO/tezcat/Guns/UN_and_RKBA.txt

Text File | 1996-07-08 | 12KB | 233 lines

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Somalia, UN, RKBA & Libertarianism, John R. Donahue


From: [e-mail] (John R. Donahue)

    I promised this list stories about my experiences in Mogadishu
    Somalia. Each time I've written it became too long and wordy.
    Although I think I have interesting stories, who really has time
    to wade through it all for the pertinent firearms and libertarian
    specifics. Therefore this is a truncated version and if this
    generates discussion or debate I will elaborate.

    I spent 8 days in Mogadishu, Somalia installing a network to support
    relief operations for the U.N. I was warned before I went that the
    U.N. is staffed by "Jaguar Liberals" and that is the sense I came
    away with after observing the U.N. employees myself.

    I lived very well. The compound I slept in, my home, was two blocks
    away from the work compound, UNOSOM,(United Nations Operations Somalia)
    My home was a mansion, and for my $10/day I received 3 great meals,
    a bed, 24 hour guards, with maid and laundry service. The furnishings
    were exquisite much better than I own or can ever hope to own.
    The domestic help was Somali. I do not know what they were paid but
    I felt they were treated poorly by the U.N. personnel who ran the
    compound. The cook was new to the house because the woman manager
    was horribly fussy. She fired and hired a new cook every week. She
    wanted the food prepared exactly the way she wanted it, and served
    to proper western standards of etiquite. I was always uncomfortable
    when she joined us for dinner because she spent more time in the
    kitchen chewing out the cook and servers than she did eating. I felt
    like a colonialist because when I came home from work I got my cold
    shower, had a martini on the patio overlooking the city and then
    looked forward to a meal of fish, lamb, vegetables, breads, wine
    and dessert. (At every meal ...)

    The Somali employees except for the cook went with the house. They
    were relatives of the woman owner who lives in Washington, D.C. and
    charges the U.N. $5000 a month rent. They lived in the garage and
    under the carport out back. They had families who were not allowed
    in the compound. The families were supposed to stay outside and they
    were always there when we went in and out of the gate. I did observe
    the guards letting the families into the compound at night after we
    all were thought to be asleep.

    My home had about 9-12 "westerners" living in it, including 3 U.S.
    military, two officers and a corporal guard/driver. On the last night
    I was there we had a party, a weekly event. All the residents were there
    and other U.N. employees who lived in another compound nicer than mine.
    We had wontons, shish khabab (?sp), fish, lobster and wine that cost
    $350/bottle. It was a great party but I could not stop thinking about
    the Somali's who were living in the street on the other side of the
    wall.

    Employees of the U.N. make good money. A woman who worked with a
    member of my group for the state department went to work for the U.N.
    and tripled her salary on top of having housing, food, medical and
    transportation paid. (That's our tax money at work ...)

    At UNOSOM the story was the same, except there were more Somali workers.
    There were drivers and guards to take you anywhere you wanted to go.
    I could have hopped a plane and gone anywhere in the country.
    Every morning the U.N. cars were washed and waxed. Maybe it was make
    work for the Somali's. The U.N. does want to pump money into the
    economy and it is better to work for something than to have it handed
    to you. But it was an attitude on the U.N.'s part that I found
    objectionable and hard to put into words. I am a commoner and I think
    the Somali's were made to feel like commoners also. As if the U.N.
    was saying, you screwed up your country and we had to come here and
    fix it for you.

    As I was leaving the U.N. was instituting wage and rent controls.
    Somali's were changing jobs and working for the highest bidder.
    Owners of compounds were evicting the workers of one relief agency
    because another was willing to pay more rent. All this change hurt
    the relief effort so the U.N. was doing its best to put a stop to it.

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    GUNS, GUNS and more GUNS !!!!!!!!!!

    Somalia is awash in firearms. Along with all kinds of great military
    hardware there were many personal firearms.

    At UNOSOM was CMOC, the Civilian Military Operations Center. The
    3 residents at my home worked in that office. I hung
    around that office and with them as much as possible.
    One of their functions was to track confiscated firearms. There was
    always a pile of AK-47's sitting in the corner ...

    It is my opinion that the Military is not out to disarm the Somali
    people. They do want weapons off the street but they do not care
    what you have as long as it is not out in the open and a potential
    threat to U.S. soldiers. I quote the Colonel. "It would be impossible
    to confiscate all the weapons. We can never get all the guns. I would
    not want to because they need them to protect themselves."

    When the troops first arrived there was no ban on any weapons. But
    they wanted them off the streets. The first weapons to go were the
    technical vehicles. So they printed up little leaflets just like
    in Desert Storm stating that "NEXT WEEK" technical vehicles are
    banned. If you are caught with one it will be taken away from you.
    Some were stupid enough to not take the hint and had their vehicles
    confiscated. Most, probably 90% are stored in garages or hidden
    out in the desert somewhere. The military does not care as long as
    they are off the streets. Slowly they added other weapons to the list
    all with the same week of warning.

    I saw the hassle the CMOC soldiers went through every day dealing
    with confiscated weapons. People were always coming in pleading for
    their guns back but they could not have them. The military strongly
    sympathised but they were following their orders. As I watched locals
    arguing with the CMOC officers and how hard the officers worked to
    be fair and placate the Somali's I just pictured what it would be
    like for the soldiers doing the same thing in the U.S. They as a group
    were very pro-RKBA and I imagine their attitude with enforcing similar
    laws in the U.S. would be pure frustration and demoralizing.

    I was not aware of it until I went, but the relief agencies carry
    firearms also. I could not believe that the workers from CARE,
    Catholic Relief Services and all the rest are running around Somalia
    with AK-47's. But they are. Every U.N. vehicle you see on TV has
    a driver and a guard with a weapon. The military did not discrimnate
    when they confiscated weapons. They took them from the relief agencies
    also. It got so bad that they were shutting down the relief operations.
    CARE could not do its work without self defense. So CMOC started a
    permit system (Yeah that's bad but ...). I was there when this system
    was started and they were returning the guns to relief agencies
    but not to Somali civilians. I wish I could
    show the pictures I have of me holding an AK-47 and kneeling in
    front of the pile of weapons before they were returned.

    THe vast majority were AK's. THere were a few M-16's stamped U.S.
    Gov't Property - Not for Sale. And about a 5-6 handguns. The guns
    ranged  from top of the line Soviet made to obvious home grown.
    Some even had baby blue plasitc stocks ... The oddest thing was they
    all had the front sight and barrel sawed off. According to the
    gunnery Sgt. in charge, they do that because it stops the barrel
    from riding up into the air when fired automatically.

                            ||
    --------------------------------------------------------
                                |
        Normal Barrel
                                |
    --------------------------------------------------------

    -----------------------------------------------\
                            \
        Doctored Barrel                 \------
                                |
    --------------------------------------------------------

    I took a tour with the CMOC officers of the city. It was my only
    chance to see more than a two block area. It was like being in prison
    because we could not freely move around. I was ready to hop into
    the Hum-Vee unprotected but the Col. found a helmet and flak jacket
    for me to wear. Here it was 100 degrees + and these soldiers are
    running around with, full uniform, helmet and flak jacket with about
    an inch of insulation. It was a great tour even drove through the Khat
    market. I did not try any but others who had said it was not much ...
    They have no intention of banning Khat, it is too much a part of
    the society. (Our guards recevied a fresh shipment every afternoon.)

    In driving around we all held small clubs and constantly watched
    the crowds. Someone was always trying to get close enough to steal
    something. Both officers I was with had had their glasses ripped off
    their faces. One managed to chase his thief down and paid $5 to
    get them back.

    There were no incidents when I drove with them, but the next day they
    received sniper fire. Someone just took a couple of pot-shots at them
    and disappeared into the crowd.

    One of the nicest/worst impressions I got while touring was the same
    event. As we cruised through the streets little children would shout
    and run after us yelling "America, America". It was just like we
    see in WWII movies in Europe. However, I did not see anyone older
    than 8 shout to us in greeting. If anything the older citizens
    just stared or gave us the finger.

    I realised what we are asking our troops to do over there with
    one incident that happened to the corporal living at my house.
    While waiting in his humvee, outside a compound, a truck with
    a loud speaker and about 8 Somali's pulled up. They were broadcasting
    propaganda against the U.N. and foreign troops. When they saw the
    corporal all by himself, they started motioning with knives across
    their necks. The Cpl. thought they were going to kill him. So he
    calmly, got out of the humvee, while chambering a round in his
    M-16. As he did this he realised that for the first time in his life
    the gun was jammed and there was no way he could unjam it without
    their knowing it. So he stood there for 10 minutes wearing his
    best poker face and stared them down ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Overall it was a great experience. It was far less dangerous than
    I imagined. I only heard about a dozen shots the whole time I was
    there. The overall impression I have is that the Somali people are
    happy to have the U.S. troops there. We have credibility with them.
    They are not happy with the U.N. because of their colonialist
    tendencies.

    I almost forgot to mention two things about Nairobi, Kenya. I stayed
    there two nights while waiting for a flight out.

    1) Just about every store has private security guards usually two
    or three hanging around out front. I initially thought there were
    tons of cops on the street but they all had different uniforms.
    The real police are not particularly helpful and moderately corrupt ...

    2) There is very little street crime in the city. Two weeks before I
    arrived a man robbed someone in front of my hotel. The victim
    yelled to the crowd and pointed to the thief as he ran. The crowd chased
    the man down and kicked him to death ... The police showed up 20
    minutes later and threw the body into the trunk.

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